Published on 8 December 2025, the UK and Ukraine confirmed Round 2 of InnovateUkraine with £17 million from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to support 14 clean‑energy projects. The programme runs for 24 months from December 2025 and was signposted at Rebuild Ukraine 2025. FCDO also notes that Round 1 backed 12 projects, many now securing follow‑on finance, under the UK–Ukraine 100‑Year Partnership.

Market Pulse UK view: this is a portfolio of deployable pilots, not lab curiosities. British and Ukrainian firms and universities are paired to test technologies that can be built or assembled locally, then replicated across municipalities, industrial sites and housing. For SMEs, the draw is clear-short time to impact, measurable outputs and a route to volume if reconstruction budgets prioritise resilient power.

Project signposts include an all‑iron redox flow battery piloting a 1 MWh arbitrage system at solar and wind sites; AeroVault’s 500 kW compressed‑air storage in Zakarpattia; a cement‑kiln capture unit at Ivano‑Frankivskcement targeting five tonnes of CO₂ per day; AI‑powered microgrids for critical services; and on‑farm PELLETEC units that turn crop residues into fuel. Together, they emphasise solutions that can scale quickly.

Several projects speak to daily needs as much as engineering. ‘EnergyGo’ proposes mobile energy shops and temporary sharing microgrids to support blackout recovery, while the UA Unity Hub will pilot a low‑carbon, off‑grid community centre in the Carpathians. The commercial upside is in components, service models and software that can be exported once proven.

The scope set out earlier this year remains the compass: smart green grids, renewable power and heat, green fuels, low‑carbon buildings, industrial decarbonisation and repurposed infrastructure. An accelerator is designed to help teams convert demonstrations into investable propositions-useful for first‑of‑a‑kind hardware.

Why it matters for operators and investors: 24‑month runways create a clear data window between 2026 and 2027. If pilots meet their technical and cost targets, teams can move from grants to blended finance, then into procurement by utilities, municipalities and industrial sites.

The capital picture is slowly improving too. IFC has announced anchor investments in Ukraine’s early‑stage funds and, with the EBRD, is preparing equity initiatives aiming to mobilise more than €600 million across infrastructure, private equity and venture capital-potential scale capital for successful pilots.

Execution risks remain-permitting, grid access, supply‑chain localisation and insurance-but the structure here is pragmatic: defined deliverables, local partners, and technology that can be maintained in‑country. That mix increases the odds of near‑term deployment rather than perpetual prototyping.

What to watch next: site selections, early procurement signals and domestic manufacturing tie‑ups. The government has published the full list of 14 projects, with activity ramping through 2026 as installations begin and data flows.